In a seaside city, water sports are far from the daily lives of most Barcelona residents. With the aim of reversing this reality, Barcelona Capital Nàutica and the Catalan Sailing Federation have allied to promote a new format of training and competition aimed at schools, in order to popularize this sport and make it part of the citizens' imagination when they think about children's activities.
"In other sports there are school leagues and weekend leagues, and in sailing we didn't have it until now," defends the manager of the Catalan Sailing Federation, Inés Vizcarro. Thus, both entities have promoted the Lliga Blava Escolar project, aimed at boys and girls between eight and twelve years old, which will initially start in 20 municipalities this academic year: "The goal is to naturalize sailing as just another sport," highlights Vizcarro.
To this end, regattas will be scheduled periodically, following "the structure of school sports in general," as the director of Barcelona Capital Nàutica, Laureà Fanega, adds. "The objective is clear: to bring sailing closer to the educational field and turn sailing into an educational and social inclusion tool."
The project arose "as a need of the sector to popularize the sport of sailing among boys and girls from a sporting and recreational perspective," as Vizcarro points out. The catalyst to accelerate its launch was the America's Cup, which kicked off in Barcelona exactly one year ago. "It was a trigger," emphasizes Fanega, who frames this project within the legacy of the competition in Catalonia.
"What we want is to break the perception that it is an elitist sport and present it as a totally accessible practice rooted in our territory; we are a country of the sea, and it is a way to break conceptual and cultural barriers," adds Fanega. And, as Vizcarro points out, until now, "you either sailed for pleasure or you went into high competition, with no middle ground," and that precisely creates a barrier.
The initiative is especially aimed at students who have already participated in school sailing programs, such as Esport Blau Escolar, Viu la Vela, and Aventura Blava. "The intention is that, if a boy or girl has tried it and loved it, they can continue without the need to compete at a certain level, but at an intermediate level and in a league format."
Despite the program focusing on these boys and girls who have already tried sailing, the organization is open to accepting other participants if they have a special interest, without initially closing themselves off to anything, according to Vizcarro: "The idea is to be able to create a talent pool and open the doors to sailing."
The league has also been designed promoting exchange between nautical clubs, and with a format of double and mixed boats. Participants will train on weekends with more than 30 boats that the federation and the foundation have delivered to the clubs, and bimonthly exchanges and club meetings and qualifying competitions will be held.
However, the objectives of the initiative go beyond competition and the popularization of sailing: it also seeks to foster values such as self-improvement and environmental protection. "During the sessions, we will take water temperature measurements and collect waste," Vizcarro emphasizes.
As a prelude to the first edition of the program, in June more than 30 boats were delivered to 18 nautical clubs, in a day at the Port del Fòrum in which more than 80 boys and girls linked to the clubs participated. As Fanega highlights, "it was a success and a first staging" of a program that aspires to ignite nautical passions.